We drank a toast to
innocence
We drank a toast to
now
And tried to reach beyond the
emptiness
But neither one knew
how
That’s from this song:
I had heard this jam before, but I rediscovered it this Christmas season. I think it began last week or so; my wife had some friends over and I was supposed to vacate the house. (Ladies night.) Went out and got buzzed with a friend, came back (Uber/no driving) and they were still doing gift exchange, so I put this song on and wrote the most off-task email I’ve probably ever written, sending a white paper I wrote for a Romanian company to 2,000 people on my list. Somehow that only got four unsubscribes. A Christmas miracle!
Anyway, the lyrics to this song are pretty good overall. I even listened to it this AM as I was driving to an off-task WeWork to drink free coffee and write things, including this blog post.
The part I popped out above I think describes a lot of adult relationships, including:
- Co-workers
- Romantic partners, periodically
- Boss to employee
- Friends in different places
It definitely describes 2020 in many ways … there’s emptiness over all manner of things, including lockdowns, lack of access to people, death, racial discord, elections, partisanship, the fact that money clearly isn’t real, and more.
We’re all trying to reach beyond the emptiness, and a lot of us don’t know how — because maybe that was yoga for you, and your studio is closed, or similar.
As I start putting my own bow on 2020 and chasing end-of-year reflection posts and stats posts — this was a big year for me, as I bought a house and got remarried, among other things — I thought this quote was particularly cool.
Here’s to a 2021 of knowing how to reach beyond the emptiness and talk about real, hard things with each other.
